General information
Autodesk ReCap stands for "Reality Capture" and is a program for working with real point clouds from laser scans. Autodesk's ReCap software is an easy-to-use package that lets you open point cloud files directly and, with a few customizable import settings, filter out the data you don't need. Allowing you to work with your files in a more manageable size.
With Autodesk ReCap, you can select what you want to clean, display, edit using simple selection tools like windowing, color-based selection, and even planar selection.
Understand the structure of your ReCap project
Autodesk ReCap can open both structured and unstructured projects. Structured projects, most of the time, have an .rcp file and a support folder of the .rcp file. In the support folder, you should find the .rcs files.
- Usually, one .rcs file equals one station.
If you only have the .rcs file or the .rcp file + the support folder with a single .rcs inside, it probably means that your project is not a structured point cloud.
One way to check the structure of your project is to open it and check the icons for each station when importing the file to ReCap:
- Structured project, scanner icon visible on each station:
- Unstructured project, icon of a cobweb visible:
- Semi-structured project, scanner icons and cobweb icons visible :
One of the ways to know if the project is structured or not is based on the 360 bubbles:
- 360 bubbles visible, your ReCap project is structured or semi-structured :
Optimize your ReCap project before adding it to the platform
If you are going to do point cloud cleanup on ReCap, you need to make sure your project has been saved correctly. PLEASE NOTE THAT IF YOU USE CLIPPING OR REGION, the points are not going to be deleted and will always remain visible on the platform.
In order to keep the cleaning of the ReCap point cloud on the platform, it is necessary to do the manipulation below:
Once you finish deleting the points, at the top left, click on “Save project as” and choose the save location.
When you save the project as, ReCap asks you if you want to completely remove the deleted points.
In this case, click on it and the new project is rewritten with the points completely removed.
Be careful, when you add the project to the platform, remember to add the project that has been rewritten with the points removed and not the original one.
Compress and Import the project on the platform
The platform is compatible with structured and unstructured projects. To be able to add a ReCap project, you must zip the .rcp file and the support folder linked to the .rcp.
Example 1: Structured project, with a zip containing the .rcp and its support folder (the .rcs).
In order to save space, before compressing the project, you can delete the Temporary Cache files folder, located in the Support folder.
Example 2: Unstructured project, with a zip containing only an .rcs file.
Please note that the ZIP file must contain a single .RCS file in case you do not have the .RCP file to link the .rcs
Once you get the ZIP file, you can add it into a project on the platform.
When you add the zip file to a project, you must select a "TYPE" and an "ACTION" (optional).
For the "TYPE", you have 3 possibilities:
- "RCP/RCS Zip",
- "ShapeZip" and
- "Other".
In our case, you need to select "RCP/RCS Zip" since we are adding a ReCap project.
For the "ACTION", you have 2 possibilities:
- "Keep E57" and
- "Save original file".
If you want to keep the ZIP file you add so that other users can download it later, you must select "Save original file".
If you know that you are going to extract some parts of the project later or if you want to have the e57 of this project, you must select "Keep E57".
By default, none of the "ACTION" is selected, which means that you will not keep the original file (zip file) and you will not have the e57 file of this project. To learn more about how to upload files to a project, please read the article Adding Files
Depending on the size of the project and your internet connection, adding may take some time. Before starting the download, you can activate the notification to receive an email when the file is ready to be consulted.
You will be able to consult and work on your file when its status is “ACTIVE”.
To find out if your file is ready or if it includes 360° images or if it is a structured file, you can go to "Project Settings" -> "Files" and find the list of files available and their status:
In our case, we notice that the file is active and that it is a structured file without 360 images.
If you have any questions or need more information, please contact the technical team.